Five Good Episodes From Season 7 TNG

A year ago I decided to show how Season 1 TNG did have it’s good points. Oh sure it was mostly awful, but there were some positives. The same can be said about the final season. Season 7 had episodes which were either boring or just flat awful. From “Force of Nature” to “Genesis” to “Sub Rosa” to “Masks”. I realize I haven’t done to many Underrated articles from there, because very few of those episode stand out. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t a few gems.

     



Now I’ve gone on and on about the series finale, so let’s put that one aside for a moment. Here are five decent episodes from Season 7 TNG.Of course this is all opinion, it’s possible someone else hates these episodes and would pick five entirely different examples. These are five that I actually enjoy from that dull season.





Phantasms

I thought of mentioning “Interface”, LaForge’s only outing, but that episode has a weak ending. This is a great episode. It was directed by Patrick Stewart and he does a decent job. The story is about Data getting subconscious messages in his dream’s, and trying to determine what they mean. It doesn’t all work, the image of Troi as a cake was kind of a fail and Data consulting Dr.Freud is a little but out there. But the story is solid and the symbolism works. This is one of my favorite “dream” episodes of any show.








Inheritance

Turns out Data does pretty well in this season. Well, that is until “Masks” but we’re discussing good episodes here. This is the episode where Data meets his mother and for once the retcon isn’t so bad. It almost works, with Geordi explaining that Soong probably didn’t mention her because he didn’t want to since she broke his heart. Makes sense to me. The ending is a little draggy but overall a good show with great casting with Fionnula Flanagan. And I am not sure why they had to make her an android also, but that scene between Soong and Data in the holodeck is fantastic.







Parallels

My brother saw this one before me and predicted this would be one of my favorite episodes. He was right. This is such a cool idea we can overlook the fact that the gimmick makes no sense at all. Just seeing all these strange alternate time lines Worf visits is fun including a Lieutenant Crusher and a world where The Borg have taken over! I’ve talked about this before so no need to go into details again.







Eye of the Beholder

I’ve talked about “The Pegasus” a million times so rather than go over that great episode, let’s discuss this one. Granted it has points taken off for starting the boring Worf/Troi relationship, but it’s still a good episode. When a crewman takes is own life, Troi and Word search for answers why. I suppose I cold complain that it’s yet another fantasy episode but at least this one has a point. Granted they miss an opportunity to really explore suicide, all we get is a talke between Data and LaForge, but for what it is I like it.






Bloodlines

One of the last episodes of the series focuses on Picard. And it’s a really good one. Ferengi Bok returns from “The Battle” to exact revenge on Picard by killing his son. Problem is, Picard doesn’t have a son. Or does he? Seems a long lost lover may have given birth to him years ago. The episode is pretty solid and the twist ending, while not a shocker, is well done. It’s not the strongest episode since it kind of plods along and the concept has been done before. But after the dreck of crap that came before it, this episode feels like a breath of fresh air and I enjoy it.







I know some would like to see “Lower Decks” on here but while I don’t hate that episode I don’t think it’s great either. And “Homeward” was ok but I didn’t think so right away. I talked about “Emergence” before and how it felt like the crew were sleepwalking through it. Finally, there is one other episode missing from here, but I decided it would be best to do an entire article on it. Stay tuned for that.